What Features Should You Look For In A Job Management Software?
Are you looking for a way to simplify your project management? Do you need a platform to efficiently track jobs, team members, inventory and invoicing? If you own a trade business, investing in job management software will be the best thing you can do in 2024! Not only will this electrical, plumbing or gas engineer software streamline your operations and improve the productivity of your workforce, but it will benefit your customers’ experiences with you, too. A job management software will essentially play a pivotal role in delegating projects, optimising communication and organising admin. So, what features should you look for in one of these platforms? Read on to find out.
Task Tracking
The first thing that should be on your list when looking at features provided by these platforms is their capabilities to improve your project tracking. Having this as a feature in your daily work routine will allow you to monitor progress, set objectives, prioritise tasks and ensure deadlines are met for your clients.
Customisation Options
Every trade business and every trade team will have different ways of managing projects and completing tasks. The job management platform you use should be able to adapt to your unique requirements. This could be personalising workflows, updating and editing task lists, creating certificates and sending customers branded invoices. This platform should seamlessly integrate into your work day, not make it more complicated.
Collaboration Tools
As the owner of a trade business, no matter how big or small your team may be, you will know that effective collaboration and communication are key to success. Choose a job management software that facilitates this with the likes of real-time updates, quick messaging, file sharing and tracking. Having your team, be that 3 people or 50, working from the same place and being able to update everyone regularly will streamline your processes and projects.
Resource Management
Your business will likely have a lot of resources, so having the right software in place to manage and allocate these effectively is essential. This will include tracking team members throughout the day to better understand their availability for tasks, assigning these tasks to the right people based on skill levels and avoiding working at over-capacity. Having a calendar function that each employee uses, as well as resource management, can be handy too!
Time Tracking, Invoicing & Reporting
Knowing how long each project is taking and what resources have been used should be a priority for trade businesses, as this is essential for project costing and evaluations. Software that features time-tracking, report and invoice-generating capabilities can speed up your admin processes, allowing your team to focus on getting the work done!
Seamless Integration
For trade businesses, there will most likely be multiple platforms and channels you use to manage things as smoothly as possible. An established project management software should be able to integrate with other tools you use on a daily basis, such as collaboration platforms, communication channels and productivity apps. Using all of these platforms wisely will enhance your workflow, so ensuring they go hand-in-hand and can integrate seamlessly is key.
User-Friendly Interface
Yourself and your team will be using this new software on a daily, if not hourly, basis in the future, so opting for one that is best suited to the abilities and preferences of your employees is a must. Look for a job management platform with intuitive user interfaces. The last thing you want to be doing is hosting extensive training sessions for the team so they understand how to use it. A quick tutorial should be all you need. The easier the platform is to use, the more your team will use it!
Security Measures
The sensitive, private data you store as a business needs to remain secure for your reputation and to avoid GDPR penalties. You should protect this data by opting for a job management software known for its robust security measures. Additionally, you could choose to set role-based permissions, controlling who from your team has access to specific features and information if the platform you invest in allows it.
To conclude, selecting and investing in the right job management software is essential for trade businesses in 2024 – especially those who want to improve workflow and the successful outcomes of projects. Prioritising features, including invoicing, security, task tracking and collaboration, allow you to streamline your operations while the customisation and user-friendly interfaces will propel your team towards greater productivity for better results. So, are you going to take the plunge and introduce better management processes to your trade this year?